VIPS member Phil Geraldi, writing in "The American Conservative," earlier noted that Karl Rove has served as a counterweight to Vice President Dick Cheney, determined as Cheney seems to be expanding the Middle East quagmire to Iran.

And former Pentagon analyst, retired Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, who worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the most rabid Pentagon neo-cons just before the attack on Iraq, has put into words (on LewRockwell.com) speculation several of us have been indulging in with respect to Rove's departure.

In short, it seems a good bet that Rove, who is no one's dummy and would not want to have to "spin" an unnecessary war on Iran, lost the battle with Cheney over the merits of a military strike on Iran, and only then decided to spend more time with his family.

Whatever else Rove has been, he has served as a counterweight to Dick Cheney's clear desire to expand the Middle East quagmire into Iran.

With the propaganda buildup we have seen so far, what seems most likely, at least initially, is an attack on Revolutionary Guard training facilities inside Iran, and that can be done with cruise missiles.

With some 20 targets already identified by anti-Iranian groups, there are enough assets already in place to do that job. But the while-we're-at-it neo-con logic referred to above may well be applied after, or even during, that kind of attack from the air.